Extraordinary terror during the Second World War concerned exclusively the
Jews during the Holocaust carried out by the Nazis. The attempt to exterminate
the Polish Christian elite by the Germans and the Soviets also verged on the
extraordinary. However, between 1939 and 1949 the ordinary people in Poland
experienced ordinary terror by the Nazis and Communists. Ordinary terror was
indispensable for the occupation regimes to maintain themselves in power and to
carry out their policy objectives which aimed at total control of the
population. I shall demonstrate the mechanisms of terror and describe its
results using as my example the area of Jedwabne, the county of
Łomża, in north-eastern Poland.

On September 2, 1939, the Nazis captured Jedwabne only to give it up to the
Soviets at the end of the month. The Soviets occupied Jedwabne until June 23,
1941, when they fled the onslaught of the Wehrmacht. Between June 25,
1941, and January 26, 1945, Jedwabne remained under Nazi rule. Later, it
experienced Soviet occupation by proxy.

During the first Soviet occupation, the invaders replaced the old Polish
administration with one modeled on the civil bureaucracy of the Soviet Union.
Imported Soviet officials headed the power structure which was also staffed with
local collaborators and, on its lowest rungs, unwilling draftees. Next, the
Nazis replaced the Soviet system with a commissary administration composed of
local collaborators and unwilling draftees supervised by German overseers.
Finally, during the second Soviet occupation following January 1945, the
invaders initially installed a local Communist proxy administration. However, it
was crushed by the Polish independentist underground by June 1945. Afterward, an
uneasy compromise persisted until January 1949: the overt independentists ran
the town and its environs; the Communists stayed away for the most part. Thus,
the post-war political set up on the local level was to a certain extent a
return to its pre-war shape or, more precisely, to the system reflecting the
division of power within the war-time Polish Underground State.

As far as the question of power was concerned, the most significant
difference between the war-time and post-war experience was the role of the
security apparatus. The Soviet police of Jedwabne and its local militiamen
(1939-1941) and the Nazi security of Jedwabne and its local auxiliaries
(1941-1945) played a crucial role in the affairs of the town. However, with the
exception of a brief spell of time when it enjoyed the protection of the local
NKVD command (January-March 1945), the post-war Citizen Militia of Jedwabne
failed to influence the affairs of the locality significantly unless it operated
in concert with outside Communist security forces (1945-49). Thus, between 1939
and 1945 Jedwabne was constantly at the mercy of the local police force, whereas
afterward it had to reckon intermittently with periodic raids by the outside
Communist security units.

The human toll

Nonetheless, between 1939 and 1949, both occupiers practiced ordinary terror
to achieve their political, revolutionary objectives. The avowed aims were to
arrange the lives of the locals according to the ideologies of national
socialism and communism. To control the population, the Nazis and Communists
resolved to eliminate the actual and potential leaders of the local resistance
as well as a broad category of people considered unfit. Both totalitarian
occupiers often adhered to the principle of genetic responsibility. The Nazis of
course applied their criminally insane policy of elimination to the Jewish
people at large. That, however, was extraordinary terror. It resulted in the
burning to death of about 400 local Jews in Jedwabne in July 1941 and shooting
and gassing in Treblinka of about 300 more Jews of Jedwabne in November 1942 and
afterward. (Note 1)

The measures against the local elite were milder and they oscillated between
extraordinary and ordinary terror. Some members of the local elite were shot,
but most “only” deported to camps, imprisoned, beaten, or otherwise persecuted.
A few examples suffice. The Soviets shot two Catholic priests, the parsons of
Jedwabne and Burzyn, for their involvement with the underground (Note 2). The local postmaster
Kazimierz Burnus found himself sharing the same cell in a Communist prison with
the future President-in-Exile of Poland, Ryszard Kaczorowski (Note 3). For an unknown reason the
Nazis executed the teacher Henryk Pytluk of Burzyn. For defying them, they sent
the town secretary Piotr Kulesza to the Majdanek concentration camp, where he
perished on October 13, 1943.
(Note 4)

Nonetheless, even ordinary terror observed the “blood principle” at least to
a certain extent. The “enemies of the people” and their families were
targeted, including innocent children, women, and elderly, as during the Soviet
deportations to the Gulag (1940-1941); during hostage round-ups and deportations
to forced labor and Nazi concentration camps (1941-1945); and during the police
sweeps in search of the independentist insurgents (1939-1949). Incidentally,
both Nazis and Communists referred to the Polish insurgents and their relatives
as “bandits” and “bandit families” and treated them both with similar barbarity.

In terms of human losses, during the first Soviet occupation, about 20
Christian inhabitants of Jedwabne and its environs were shot. Approximately 250
Poles were arrested for underground activities. In addition, around 300 people,
including up to 10 Jews, were seized and deported to the Gulag; an estimated 50
of them died in the process and later in the camps. Further, at least 100 young
men, Poles and Jews, were forcibly impressed into the Red Army. Some of them
died at the front following June 1941. (Note 5)

Ordinary terror intensified significantly during the Nazi occupation. In
addition to the wholesale slaughter of the Jewish community, the Germans killed
at least 220 Christian Poles of the town and parish (gmina) of Jedwabne.
A minimum of 100 local Poles perished in the town itself and in the outlying
villages; hundreds were sent to labor and concentration camp, where about 120
died. Three examples amply illustrate the nature of ordinary terror at its
worst. In July 1942 the gendarmerie raided the local state-run retirement
shelter in the village of Pieńki Borowe near
Jedwabne. The Nazis arrested approximately 60 senior citizens who were
subsequently shot in the forest near Jeziorko. The crime was perpetrated for no
apparent reason at all other than to eliminate the need to feed the
elderly out of the state coffers. Sometime in 1943, according to Antoni Nadara,
the Germans allegedly shot a Polish family and sixteen Jews hiding on their
farmstead near Jedwabne. On December 31, 1944, in Niesławice
the occupiers shot and burned 41 peasants alive for having sheltered a
Wehrmacht deserter. (Note 6)

Between 1945 and 1949, ordinary terror of the proxy regime focused primarily
on the politically active in general, and on the insurgents in particular. When
the Soviets re-appeared in January 1945, they immediately seized a few score of
people, mostly connected to the underground. Probably a few were shot on the
spot, while some others shipped off to the Gulag. In addition, within the next
four years, the Communists may have killed about 50 opponents of the regime,
chiefly the insurgents. Hundreds were arrested, and the property of some of them
confiscated (Note 7).
The secret police also maltreated many innocent by-standers, assuming that
almost all locals were “reactionaries.” According to the Communist County
Supervisor of Łomża, “the security authorities
should conduct themselves with more tact and moderation toward the innocent
population that has nothing to do with the reactionary bands [i.e. the
insurgents]. Violent actions by the security authorities cause the local
population to regard them disfavorably and at the same time hamper the
administrative civilian authorties from fulfilling their duties.” (Note 8)

Ordinary terror consisted not only of shooting, beating, arresting, and
deporting the inhabitants. It also adversely affected their economic,
educational, and religious lives.

Economy and Property

Between 1939 and 1941, the Soviets confiscated all local enterprises and
landed estates, the former impacting Jewish businessmen and the latter Christian
noble landowners. However, most former Jewish owners were temporarily allowed to
continue working as technical experts in their establishments. Better-off
farmers had to pay confiscatory taxes and join the collectives. Poor peasants
were given some land from confiscated estates, but not enough to make their
farms economically sustainable. Moreover, they were coerced to surrender the
food quota and perform forced labor. Police terror largely nullified their
resistance. Soon, the supplies dwindled. Scarcity set in. (Note 9)

After June 1941, the Nazis took over all assets previously seized by the
Soviet state and, in addition, confiscated Jewish property en bloc. Some
of the properties, real estate and small industrial enterprises in particular,
were rented to Polish Christians. Nonetheless, the Nazis continued demanding the
food quota and consistently increased its size. The official need for forced
labor likewise grew apace. Like the Soviets, the German occupiers coerced the
peasants to obey them through terror. Poverty and deprivation deepened judged
even by an abysmal standards of the Soviet occupation. (Note 10)

As a result of the war, about 10 percent of the town of Jedwabne was
destroyed. At least 50 properties were seriously damaged in the town itself. In
the parish of Jedwabne, 13 out of 38 villages were destroyed completely. Out of
532 farmsteads affected, 232 were completely annihilated. Most of the damage
occurred as the front was rolling through the area.
(Note 11)

Following the return of the Communists in January 1945, the economic
situation improved. Some Jewish owners were able to reclaim their properties
(Note 12), but not the landed nobility.
Their lands were again distributed to the poorest of the locals but the measure
failed to improve significantly the economic lot of that group (Note 13).However, because the central
authorities initially lacked the means and
manpower to control Jedwabne and other small localities, the town and its
environs slowly recuperated and even began to prosper. To stress, the recovery
occurred without the assistance of the central government and, in fact, despite
its policies. In an economically punitive move, the Communists increased the
food quota to a level higher than even that demanded by the Nazis. However,
because the proxy regime lacked the means to enforce its demands, the people
failed to surrender the quota and pay taxes. As late as as November 1948, the
parish mayor of Jedwabne told his superiors that “without the special [security]
team from the county… the taxes cannot be collected.” (Note 14) The people also mostly
ignored official requests to report for forced labor. Thus, because of the
weakness of the occupation regime, Jedwabne and its environs enjoyed a measure
of prosperity from 1945 until 1949. However, already by the end of 1948 the
collectivization drive commenced along with property confiscation among a few of
the traditional elite. (Note 15)

Religion

Between 1939 and 1941, the attitude of the Soviet regime toward religion can
be characterized as hostile toleration at best and mild prosecution at worst.
The church and the synagogue were taxed heavily. Much of their property was
seized, most notably the Catholic House. Religion was mocked; its symbols
desecrated; and it was banned at public schools. Two priests were shot for
political reasons. On the other hand, the rabbi
was perhaps harassed but not arrested. And a few religious rituals were
tolerated in public, funerals in particular. (Note 16)

The period between 1941 and 1945 was marked by hostile toleration of
Christianity and total assault on Judaism. The Nazis, of course, exterminated
Jewish religion together with its adherents. However, as far as the Catholic
Church was concerned, the German occupiers eschewed attacking the religion per
se but endeavored to use the institution as a conduit for their propaganda to
expedite the economic exploitation of the area and spread anti-Communism and
anti-Semitism. Otherwise the Nazi left the clergy pretty much alone, although
during their retreat in 1945 German soldiers unsuccessfully attempted to destroy
the church building. (Note 17)

After 1945, the Polish Communist proxies of the Soviets were initially too
weak to undermine the Catholic Church. Thus, the Church and its parson largely
returned to its pre-war ways and its influence on the local level even grew. The
persecution of the Church commenced in the earnest only from 1949.
(Note 18)

Education

As far as education was concerned, the first Soviet occupation brought some
benefits to the Jewish minority, but was mostly detrimental for the Polish
majority. The Soviets established a Jewish high-school in Jedwabne
(Note 19). On the one
hand, some Jewish parents probably looked favorably at the educational
opportunities that opened up for their children. On the other hand, at least
some abhorred the new state schools as a conduit for Communist propaganda.
Polish parents and pupils had more reason to chafe. In all schools Russian
replaced Polish as the language of instructions. Many Polish teachers were
dismissed, and some arrested
(Note 20). A peasant complained that:

Religion and the clergy were persecuted by the NKVD. Roadside crosses
and other [religious] statues were destroyed by tractors or tanks. Next,
a chain was affixed to them and they were dragged in mockery through the
villages. In our village school children were taught exclusively in
Russian and Belorussian. The Polish language was abolished. Polish
teachers were replaced with Belorussian newcomers and Jews. They ordered
our children to take their crosses and [holy] medallions off their necks
and they mocked our religion. (Note 21)

Under the Nazis, Jewish education was liquidated completely together with the
teachers and pupils. The Nazis also shot at least three Polish Christian
teachers and sent a minimum of two to concentration camps. Their colleagues were
periodically held as hostages
(Note 22). On the other hand, the Polish language was
restored on the lowest level of schooling. Nonetheless, the occupation
authorities removed Polish literature and history from the curriculum, which was
additionally designed to foster inferiority and stupidity among Polish children.
The deficiencies of the curriculum were somewhat remedied through clandestine
teaching which most likely commenced already under the Soviet occupation.
(Note 23)

Between 1945 and 1949, again because of the weakness of the Communist proxy
regime, education returned to its pre-war form. Religion was back in the
classroom. For the most part the local teachers ignored the Communist propaganda
directives coming from the center and taught according to the pre-war standards.
However, by the end of 1948, Stalinist orthodoxy again re-appeared in Jedwabne’s
school.

Conclusion

Between 1939 and 1949 the human toll for Jedwabne and its environs was
staggering. Extraordinary terror of the Holocaust claimed about 400 Jewish
victims in the town itself and at least further 300 elsewhere (including about
150 who fled the original massacre on July 10, 1941). Ordinary terror, directed
primarily against the Catholic majority, claimed at least 400 victims dead and
probably three times as many incarcerated in Communist and Nazi concentration
camps and jails.

To a certain extent, after 1944, the second Soviet occupation by Polish
Communist proxy regime continued in the oppressive tradition of the first Soviet
occupation (1939-1941) and the Nazi occupation (1941-1945). However, the second
Soviet occupation was much milder than either of the preceding invasions. Of
course, the Nazi period was the most ferocious. The human and material losses
were indisputably the heaviest at the time. This was a function of both the
radicalism of the Nazi ideology and the high degree of control exercised by the
Germans over the area and its inhabitants. The chief victims of the Nazi
occupation were of course the Jews. Nonetheless, the Germans also targeted the
Poles, first the intelligentsia and then also the ordinary people. However,
between 1939 and 1941, it was the Poles, specifically the Polish elite, who
suffered most because of the ideological radicalism of the occupier bent chiefly
upon destroying the Polish state and its institutions and a high degree of
control imposed by the Soviets.

In contradistinction, after 1944, because the Polish Communist proxies of
Stalin initially lacked the power to exercise total control over the area,
Jedwabne and its environs experienced a period of unprecedented freedom. The
independentist underground, which for the most part had played a secondary, and
at times only a symbolic role between 1939 and 1944, became a significant factor
in the countryside afterward. Because of the persistence of the armed
resistance, the Communists were forced to tolerate an overtly independentist
town and parish administration in Jedwabne until 1949. Further, because of the
insurgent activities, the proxy regime failed to exploit the population
economically. That was a welcome respite for the people who were robbed blindly
and routinely forced into slave labor under both previous occupations
(1939-1945). Nonetheless, after 1944, during the second Soviet occupation,
Jedwabne sustained some human losses as well, in particular among the insurgents
and the real and alleged supporters of the proxy regime who were mostly ethnic
Poles.

Although in comparison to the first Soviet occupation and, especially, the
Nazi period, the second Soviet occupation was mild, the ordinary terror
experienced by the locals in Jedwabne and its environs was still more virulent
than what most of Western Europeans experienced at Hitler’s hands. This crucial
background is indispensable to understand why the Poles also considered
themselves victims of the Second World War and why most Poles did not consider
as liberation the entry of the Red Army into Poland in 1944.

Note 2.
Father Marian Szumowski of Jedwabne was shot on
January 27, 1941, in Minsk, Soviet Belorus. Father Stanisław Cutnik of Burzyn
was most likely executed at the same time. See Ks. Marian Szumowski, Akta
księży, Archiwum Diecezjalne w Łomży [afterward ADŁ]; the letter of the Consul
General of Belarus in Białystok
I. Khodasevich to Father Edward Orłowski
of Jedwabne, 26 October 1994 (a copy in my
collection). (back to text)

Note 6.
Two-hundred and twenty Christian victims (listed by name) represent the losses
sustained by the town and the parish of Jedwabne. That number excludes the Poles
brought by the Nazis from Łomża and elsewhere and killed in the environs of
Jedwabne. It also most likely does not include the pensioners of Pieńki
Borowe,where it has been possible to identify the names of ten victims only,
apparently Christians. In addition, on the same day the Nazis killed a separate
batch of pensioners from Łomża, altogether 95 persons. Jerzy Smurzyński, who
described the crime in some detail, mentions no Jews among the victims.
However, the fact that the crime was committed when the Holocaust was in the
full swing suggests that the murder of the pensioners may have been somehow
connected, if only because the slaughter of the Jews radicalized the Nazis so
that they treated the killing of the “superfluous” Poles as a casual affair. The
losses among the elite in Jedwabne and its environs have not been calculated
yet. However, the overall losses have been tabulated. According to local
administration records and research by Franciszek Januszek and Jerzy Smurzyński,
in the Łomża area 36,790 persons were killed by the Nazis, including 24,955
Jews, 11,683 Poles, and 195 Gypsies. In addition, the Germans killed
approximately 200 Polish POWs in 1939 and 12,000 Soviet POWs after June 1940.
Out of 276 teachers, 68 were arrested by the Nazis, 43 killed, and 25 survived
jails and concentration camps. The Nazis also arrested 52 Catholic priests and
killed 34 of them. To illustrate the extent of the losses in the area of
Jedwabne, including both Jewish and Polish victims, we need only to compare
pre-war and post-war demographic statistics. In 1939 the parish of Jedwabne
boasted 8,050 people, while in 1947 only 7,040 remained. The population of the
town of Jedwabne dropped from 3,000 to 1,850 inhabitants. Aside from the
outright slaughter on the spot, many fell victim to deportation. Others fled,
while still others were displaced as refugees or moved on their own never to
return home. Some of them were replaced by refugees from other parts of Poland.
See Wykaz osób zamordowanych przez Niemców, APBOŁ, Gminne Rady Narodowe
Powiatu Łomżyńskiego, GRN w Jedwabnem, 1945-1954, Zarząd Gminny, Dział
Ogólno-Organizacyjny, file 16; Kwestionariusz dotyczący rejestracji szkód
wojennych, APBOŁ, Starostwo Powiatowe Łomżyńskie [afterward SPŁ], Referat szkód
wojennych, file 73; Sprawozdania dotyczące szkód wojennych w gminach pow.
Łomżyńskiego, 1945, APBOŁ, SPŁ, file 49; Ankieta dotycząca przebiegu działań
wojennych oraz okupacji niemieckiej, 31 July 1945, APBOŁ, SPŁ, file 48, 1-2;
Jerzy Smurzyński, Czarne lata na Łomżyńskiej ziemi (Masowe zbrodnie
hitlerowskie w roku 1939, latach 1941-1945 w świetle dokumentów) (Warszawa:
and Łomża Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Ziemi Łomżyńskiej, 1997), 36, 117-120, 135-36,
200-205, 214-17, 294-95 [afterward Czarne lata na Łomżyńskiej ziemi];
Januszek, Martyrologia nauczycieli polskich na Białostocczyźnie, 37; Jan
Onacik, Przewodnik po miejscach męczeństwa woj. Białostockiego lata wojny
1939-1945 (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka, 1970), 111, 122-23;
Waldemar Monkiewicz and Józef Kowalczyk, Bez przedawnienia: Pacyfikacje wsi
białostockich w latach 1939, 1941-1944 (Białystok Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza, 1986); Antoni Nadara, “Skończyć z oszczerstwami!”
Nasza Polska, 13 March 2001,
12. (back to text)